Neutrino-nucleus Cross Sections Research Articles

New signal of atmospheric tau neutrino appearance: Sub-GeV neutral-current interactions in JUNO

We propose the first practical method to detect atmospheric tau neutrino appearance at sub-GeV energies, which would be an important test of νμ→ντ oscillations and of new-physics scenarios. In the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO; starts in 2024), active-flavor neutrinos eject neutrons from carbon via neutral-current quasielastic scattering. This produces a two-part signal: the prompt part is caused by the scattering of the neutron in the scintillator, and the delayed part by its radiative capture. Such events have been observed in KamLAND, but only in small numbers and were treated as a background. With νμ→ντ oscillations, JUNO should measure a clean sample of 55 events/yr; with simple νμ disappearance, this would instead be 41 events/yr, where the latter is determined from Super-Kamiokande charged-current measurements at similar neutrino energies. Implementing this method will require precise laboratory measurements of neutrino-nucleus cross sections or other developments. With those, JUNO will have 5σ sensitivity to tau-neutrino appearance in five years of exposure, and likely sooner. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Demonstration of particle tracking with scintillating fibres read out by a SPAD array sensor and application as a neutrino active target

Scintillating fibre detectors combine sub-mm resolution particle tracking, precise measurements of the particle stopping power and sub-ns time resolution. Typically, fibres are read out with silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). Hence, if fibres with a few hundred μ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\upmu $$\\end{document}m diameter are used, either they are grouped together and coupled with a single SiPM, losing spatial resolution, or a very large number of electronic channels is required. In this article we propose and provide a first demonstration of a novel configuration which allows each individual scintillating fibre to be read out regardless of the size of its diameter, by imaging them with Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) array sensors. Differently from SiPMs, SPAD array sensors provide single-photon detection with single-pixel spatial resolution. In addition, O(us) or faster coincidence of detected photons allows to obtain noise-free images. Such a concept can be particularly advantageous if adopted as a neutrino active target, where scintillating fibres alternated along orthogonal directions can provide isotropic, high-resolution tracking in a dense material and reconstruct the kinematics of low-momentum protons (down to 150 MeV/c), crucial for an accurate characterisation of the neutrino-nucleus cross section. In this work the tracking capabilities of a bundle of scintillating fibres coupled to SwissSPAD2 is demonstrated. The impact of such detector configuration in GeV-neutrino experiments is studied with simulations and reported. Finally, future plans, including the development of a new SPAD array sensor optimised for neutrino detection, are discussed.

DarkNews: A Python-based event generator for heavy neutral lepton production in neutrino-nucleus scattering

We introduce DarkNews, a lightweight Python -based Monte-Carlo generator for beyond-the-Standard-Model neutrino-nucleus scattering. The generator handles the production and decay of heavy neutral leptons via additional vector or scalar mediators, as well as through transition magnetic moments. DarkNews samples pre-computed neutrino-nucleus upscattering cross sections and heavy neutrino decay rates to produce dilepton and single-photon events in accelerator neutrino experiments. We present two case studies with differential distributions for models that can explain the MiniBooNE excess. The aim of this code is to aid the neutrino theory and experimental communities in performing searches and sensitivity studies for new particles produced in neutrino upscattering. Program summaryProgram Title: DarkNewsCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/k9nh5fn4pw.1Developer's repository link:https://github.com/mhostert/DarkNews-generatorLicensing provisions: MITProgramming language: PythonNature of problem: In many theories beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, new light particles are introduced with masses below the 100 GeV scale. These can be produced by neutrino-nucleus interactions inside neutrino detectors, leaving a visible signature through their decay. To search for these signatures, experiments have to simulate the underlying physical processes, which requires detailed knowledge of the cross sections and decay rates in the model, as well as the ability to generate Monte Carlo events.Solution method: DarkNews provides the necessary tools to simulate the production of heavy neutral leptons in accelerator neutrino experiments, focusing on neutrino-nucleus scattering processes. The program's scope includes models with new mediators and three heavy neutral leptons, parameterizing a large class of theories through generic neutrino, quark, and lepton interactions. It generates weighted Monte-Carlo events using vegas and its pre-calculated differential rates.

The ESS𝜈SB+ Project

The European Spallation Source neutrino Super Beam (ESS𝜈SB) is a long-baseline neutrino project that will measure the CP-violation in the leptonic sector at the second, rather than the first, oscillation maximum, where the sensitivity of the experiment is ∼3 times higher. The physics simulations have shown that the ESS𝜈SB, after 10 years of data taking, will be able to cover more than 70% of the CP-violating phase, δCP , parameterrange with 5 σ C.L. to reject the no-CP-violation hypothesis. The expected measurement error of δCP is smaller than 8° for all δCP values, making it the most precise proposed experiment in the field by a large margin. The extension project, ESS𝜈SB+ to be performed between 2023 and 2026, aims in measuring the neutrino-nucleus cross-section (the dominant term of the systematic uncertainty) in the energy range of 0.2 – 0.6 GeV, using a Low Energy nuSTORM (LEnuSTORM) and a Low Energy Monitored Neutrino Beam (LEMNB) facilities.

Monitored neutrino beams and the next generation of high precision cross section experiments

The main source of systematic uncertainty on neutrino cross section measurements at the GeV scale originates from the poor knowledge of the initial flux. The reduction of this uncertainty to 1% can be achieved through the monitoring of charged leptons produced in association with neutrinos. The goal of the ENUBET ERC project is to prove the feasibility of such a monitored neutrino beam. In this contribution, the final results of the ERC project, together with the complete assessment of the feasibility of its concept, are presented. An overview of the detector technology for a next generation of high precision neutrino-nucleus cross section measurements, to be performed with the ENUBET neutrino beam, is also given.

Cross Sections for Coherent Elastic and Inelastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering

The prospects of extracting new physics signals in coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEνNS) processes are limited by the precision with which the underlying nuclear structure physics, embedded in the weak nuclear form factor, is known. We present calculations of charge and weak nuclear form factors and CEνNS cross sections on 12C, 16O, 40Ar, 56Fe and 208Pb nuclei. We obtain the proton and neutron densities, and charge and weak form factors by solving Hartree–Fock (HF) equations with a Skyrme (SkE2) nuclear potential. We validate our approach by comparing 208Pb and 40Ar charge form factor predictions with available elastic electron scattering data. Since CEνNS experiments at stopped-pion sources are also well suited to measure inelastic charged–current and neutral–current neutrino–nucleus cross sections, we also present calculations for these processes, incorporating a continuum Random Phase Approximation (CRPA) description on top of the HF–SkE2 picture of the nucleus. Providing both coherent as well as inelastic cross sections in a consistent framework, we aim at obtaining a reliable and detailed comparison of the strength of these processes in the energy region below 100 MeV. Furthermore, we attempt to gauge the level of theoretical uncertainty pertaining to the description of the 40Ar form factor and CEνNS cross sections by comparing relative differences between recent microscopic nuclear theory and widely-used phenomenological form factor predictions. Future precision measurements of CEνNS will potentially help in constraining these nuclear structure details that will in turn improve prospects of extracting new physics.

Simultaneous Measurement of ν_{μ} Quasielasticlike Cross Sections on CH, C, H_{2}O, Fe, and Pb as a Function of Muon Kinematics at MINERvA.

This Letter presents the first simultaneous measurement of the quasielasticlike neutrino-nucleus cross sections on C, water, Fe, Pb, and scintillator (hydrocarbon or CH) as a function of longitudinal and transverse muon momentum. The ratio of cross sections per nucleon between Pb and CH is always above unity and has a characteristic shape as a function of transverse muon momentum that evolves slowly as a function of longitudinal muon momentum. The ratio is constant versus longitudinal momentum within uncertainties above a longitudinal momentum of 4.5 GeV/c. The cross section ratios to CH for C, water, and Fe remain roughly constant with increasing longitudinal momentum, and the ratios between water or C to CH do not have any significant deviation from unity. Both the overall cross section level and the shape for Pb and Fe as a function of transverse muon momentum are not reproduced by current neutrino event generators. These measurements provide a direct test of nuclear effects in quasielasticlike interactions, which are major contributors to long-baseline neutrino oscillation data samples.

Requirements on quantum superpositions of macro-objects for sensing neutrinos

We examine a macroscopic system in a quantum superposition of two spatially separated localized states as a detector for a stream of weakly interacting relativistic particles. We do this using the explicit example of neutrinos with $\mathrm{MeV}$-scale energy scattering from a solid object via neutral-current neutrino-nucleus scattering. Presuming the (anti)neutrino source to be a nuclear fission reactor, we utilize the estimated flux and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus cross section to constrain the spatial separation $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}x$ and describe the temporal evolution of the sensing system. Particularly, we find that a potentially measurable relative phase between quantum superposed components is obtained for a single gram scale mass placed in a superposition of spatial components separated by ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}14} \mathrm{m}$ under sufficient cooling and background suppression.

QED medium effects in (anti)neutrino-nucleus and electron-nucleus scattering: Elastic scattering on nucleons

Interpretation of current and future neutrino oscillation and electron scattering experiments requires knowledge of lepton-nucleon and lepton-nucleus interactions at the percent level. We study the exchange of photons between charged particles and the nuclear medium for (anti)neutrino-, electron-, and muon-induced reactions inside a large nucleus. While quantum electrodynamics (QED)-medium contributions are formally suppressed by two powers of the electromagnetic coupling constant α when compared to the leading-order cross sections, low-energy modes and the nuclear size enhance the effect by orders of magnitude. They require a proper infrared regularization, which we implement as a screening of the electromagnetic interactions at atomic length scales or above. We provide approximate analytic expressions for the distortion of (anti)neutrino-nucleus and charged lepton-nucleus cross sections and evaluate the QED-medium effects for realistic values of the screening scale on the example of elastic scattering with nucleons inside the nucleus. We find new permille- to percent-level effects, which were not considered in either (anti)neutrino-nucleus or electron-nucleus scattering.

Weak process for Iron isotopes chain used as seed for heavy elements nucleosynthesis

The weak processes are a key to understand the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in the universe. In this work we have studied weak processes such as β-decay and neutrino capture that are very important for the r-process. This process takes place in a region between neutron drip and β-stability line. For nuclei far from β-stability line the experimental data are very scarce. To study the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in astrophysics sites like Binary Neutron Star merger (BNS) and Supernova explosions, we have employed the Gross Theory of Beta Decay (GTBD) to evaluate the neutrino-nucleus cross sections and β-decay half-lives. Our 56Fe(νe , e −)56Co cross section show a excelent agreement with microscopic models and the half-lives well reproduce the experimental data with a satisfactory accuracy. We have fitted the neutrino-nucleus cross sections obtained by GTBD using a four degree polynomial dependence of the incident neutrino energy. This dependence allows us to systematically calculate the neutrino-nucleus cross sections for a large amount of nuclei, as occurs in the r-process nucleosynthesis calculation (more than 4000 nuclei). Our fitting and interpolation procedures are shown to be in a good agreement and the GTBD cross sections are successfully reproduced.

Status of Lattice QCD Determination of Nucleon Form Factors and Their Relevance for the Few-GeV Neutrino Program

Calculations of neutrino–nucleus cross sections begin with the neutrino–nucleon interaction, making the latter critically important to flagship neutrino oscillation experiments despite limited measurements with poor statistics. Alternatively, lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD) can be used to determine these interactions from the Standard Model with quantifiable theoretical uncertainties. Recent LQCD results of gA are in excellent agreement with data, and results for the (quasi-)elastic nucleon form factors with full uncertainty budgets are expected within a few years. We review the status of the field and LQCD results for the nucleon axial form factor, FA( Q2), a major source of uncertainty in modeling sub-GeV neutrino–nucleon interactions. Results from different LQCD calculations are consistent but collectively disagree with existing models, with potential implications for current and future neutrino oscillation experiments. We describe a road map to solidify confidence in the LQCD results and discuss future calculations of more complicated processes, which are important to few-GeV neutrino oscillation experiments.

Shell Model Applications in Nuclear Astrophysics

In recent years, shell model studies have significantly contributed in improving the nuclear input, required in simulations of the dynamics of astrophysical objects and their associated nucleosynthesis. This review highlights a few examples such as electron capture rates and neutrino-nucleus cross sections, important for the evolution and nucleosynthesis of supernovae. For simulations of rapid neutron-capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis, shell model studies have contributed to an improved understanding of half lives of neutron-rich nuclei with magic neutron numbers and of the nuclear level densities and γ-strength functions that are both relevant for neutron capture rates.

Coherent pion production in neutrino (anti-neutrino)-nucleus interaction

We present a study of coherent pion production in neutrino-nucleus interactions using the formalism based on partially conserved axial current theorem which connects the neutrino-nucleus cross section to the pion-nucleus elastic scattering cross section. Pion-nucleus elastic scattering cross section is calculated using Glauber model which takes three inputs, nuclear densities, pion-nucleon cross section and απN which is the ratio of real to imaginary part of πN forward scattering amplitude, for which the parametrizations are obtained from measured data. We calculate the differential and integrated cross sections for charge and neutral current coherent pion production in neutrino (anti-neutrino)-nucleus scattering for a range of nuclear targets from light to heavy materials such as lithium, carbon, hydrocarbon, oxygen, silicon, argon, iron and lead. The results of these cross section calculations are compared with the measured data and with the calculations from the Berger-Sehgal model and GENIE package. There is an excellent agreement between the calculated and measured cross sections with Glauber model. While GENIE and Berger-Sehgal model give a good description of the data in the lower energy range the present calculations describe the data in all energy ranges. Predictions are also made for upcoming experiments like INO and DUNE in the coherent region of neutrino cross section.

The 26Al Production of the ν e -process in the Explosion of Massive Stars

The core collapses of massive stars at the ends of their lives will produce powerful streams of neutrinos, which provide an important contribution to the 26Al yield during the explosion stage. In this work, the contribution of the process to the radioactive 26Al in the Milky Way is studied based on a simple model. By combining the calculation of the neutrino-nucleus cross section and some hypotheses about core-collapse supernova explosions, the ratio of 26Al and 26Mg of the ν e -process is estimated. An analytical relationship between the 26Mg yield and the initial mass and metallicity of massive stars is then obtained, making it easy to estimate the 26Mg and 26Al yields analytically. Due to the simplicity of the model, we can move away from complex calculations and into a careful study of the effects of some important factors, such as the radius of the O/Ne shell, the shock velocity, the neutrino spectrum, the Galactic mass and metallicity distribution, and so on. The uncertainties of the 26Al yield contributed from these factors are discussed in detail. This study will facilitate an intuitive understanding of the buried implicit assumptions in previous studies.

SuSAv2 model for inelastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

The susperscaling model SuSAv2, already available for charged-current neutrino-nucleus cross sections in the quasielastic region, is extended to the full inelastic regime. In the model the resonance production and deep inelastic reactions are described through the extension to the neutrino sector of the SuSAv2 inelastic model developed for ($e$, ${e}^{\ensuremath{'}}$) reactions, which combines phenomenological structure functions with a nuclear scaling function. This work also compares two different descriptions of the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ resonance region, one based on a global scaling function for the full inelastic spectrum and the other on a semiphenomenological $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ scaling function extracted from ($e$, ${e}^{\ensuremath{'}}$) data for this specific region and updated with respect to previous work. The results of the model are tested against ($e$, ${e}^{\ensuremath{'}}$) data on $^{12}\mathrm{C}$, $^{16}\mathrm{O}$, $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$, and $^{40}\mathrm{Ar}$ and applied to the study of the charged current inclusive neutrino cross-section on $^{12}\mathrm{C}$ and $^{40}\mathrm{Ar}$ measured by the T2K, MicroBooNE, ArgoNEUT, and MINERvA experiments, thus covering several kinematical regions.

Analysis of the kinematic boundaries of the quasielastic neutrino-nucleus cross section in the superscaling model with a relativistic effective mass

In this work we obtain the analytical expressions for the boundaries of the charged current quasielastic (CCQE) double differential cross section in terms of dimensionless energy and momentum transfers, for the Relativistic Fermi Gas (RFG) and the Superscaling approach with relativistic effective mass (SuSAM*) models, within the scaling formalism. In addition, we show that this double differential cross section in the scaling formalism has very good properties to be implemented in the Monte Carlo (MC) neutrino event generators, particularly because its peak is almost flat with the (anti)neutrino energy. This makes it especially well suited for the event generation by the acceptance-rejection method usually used in the neutrino generators. Finally, we analyze the total CCQE cross section $\ensuremath{\sigma}({E}_{\ensuremath{\nu}})$ for both models and attribute the enhancement observed in the SuSAM* total cross section to the high-momentum components which are present, in a phenomenological way, in its scaling function, while these are absent in the RFG model.

T2K latest results on neutrino-nucleus cross sections

Neutrino interaction cross section measurements are of high importance, in improving understanding for both oscillation measurements and nuclear modelling. The T2K experiment features a near detector complex with multiple detectors, providing multiple different nuclear targets at differing mean neutrino energies due to the off-axis configurations used. Along with constraining the flux for oscillation measurements, these near detectors provide the opportunity for a large programme of neutrino cross section measurements. Some recent such measurements are described in this proceeding.

Multinucleon excitations in neutrino–nucleus scattering: connecting different microscopic models for the correlations

The problem of nucleon-nucleon correlations and meson exchange currents has been vividly debated in connection with the neutrino-nucleus cross sections. In this work we focus on nucleon-nucleon correlations by discussing a formal correspondence between the approaches based on independent particles and the ab initio approaches involving correlated wave functions. We use a general technique based on unitary transformation mapping the Fermion operators relative to bare nucleons into quasi-particle operators relative to dressed nucleons. We derive formulas for spectral functions, response functions, momentum distribution, separation energy, general enough to be applied with any kind of effective nucleon-nucleon interaction. We establish the relation between the non-energy-weighted sum rule and the Fermi sea depopulation. With our tools we evaluate whether approaches based on effective interactions are compatible with the expected amount of correlations coming from ab initio calculations. For this purpose we use as a test the Fermi sea depopulation and the value of the kinetic energy per nucleon.

Theoretical description of semi-inclusive T2K, MINERνA and MicroBooNE neutrino-nucleus data in the relativistic plane wave impulse approximation

We present the results of semi-inclusive neutrino-nucleus cross sections within the plane wave impulse approximation (PWIA) for three nuclear models: relativistic Fermi gas, independent-particle shell model, and natural orbital shell model in comparison with the available $\mathrm{CC}0\ensuremath{\pi}$ measurements from the T2K, $\mathrm{MINER}\ensuremath{\nu}\mathrm{A}$, and MicroBooNE collaborations where a muon and at least one proton are detected in the final state. Results are presented as a function of the momenta and angles of the final particles, as well as in terms of the imbalances between proton and muon kinematics. The present semi-inclusive formalism is based on fully relativistic microscopic calculations and numerical integrations to produce both lepton and hadron kinematics without relying on further approximations. The analysis reveals that contributions beyond PWIA are crucial to explain the experimental measurements and that the study of correlations between final-state proton and muon kinematics can provide valuable information on relevant nuclear effects such as the Fermi motion and final-state interactions.

Unraveling the flux-averaged neutrino–nucleus cross section

The interpretation of the nuclear cross sections measured using accelerator neutrino beams involve severe difficulties, arising primarily from the average over the incoming neutrino flux. The broad energy distribution of the beam particles hampers the determination of the energy transfer to the nuclear target, the knowledge of which is needed to pin down the dominant reaction mechanism. Overcoming this problem requires the development of a theoretical approach suitable to describe neutrino interactions at energies ranging from hundreds of MeV to few GeV. In this paper, it is argued that the approach based on the factorisation of the nuclear cross section provides a consistent framework for the calculation of neutrino-nucleus interactions in both the quasi elastic and inelastic channels. The near-degeneracy between theoretical models based on different assumptions, and the use of electron scattering data to advance the understanding of neutrino-nucleus cross sections are also discussed.